A Perth community is rallying around a 13-year-old girl left orphaned after her parents drowned while fishing in an estuary south of Mandurah.
The alarm was raised on Thursday after 50-year-old Jon Ballo and his 49-year-old wife Leslie failed to return home from their weekly Wednesday fishing trip at Birchmont and then failed to arrive at work.
Jon Ballo, 50, and his wife Leslie, 49, drowned during a fishing trip near Mandurah.
Family friend Mirasol Armada told Nine News Perth she sensed something was wrong and contacted police, who discovered the couple’s vehicle at the Herron Point camping site.
Their bodies were discovered in the estuary about midday.
The couple, who migrated to Perth nine years ago, are understood to have embarked on regular fishing trips as a bonding exercise.
The news has devastated the pair’s parents, who had been holidaying in Perth from the Philippines at the time of the incident.
The tragedy also comes just a fortnight after the Ballos, who have been married for 24 years, renewed their vows.
Family, friends and the New Life Filipino-Australian Community Church are now rallying around the couple’s 13-year-old daughter, vowing to take her in.
Armada described the “golden couple” as kind and generous, revealing they would often go door to door sharing the seafood they had caught during their weekly fishing trips.
“I wish this a nightmare… and I wish one day they would show up,” she said.
“No matter what, we will be here for Jancee... I know how much they loved their daughter, and we will do the same.
“They really were a golden couple, and we will cherish them in our hearts.”
Even though much of the water in the estuary is shallow and safe, locals told Nine News there were sudden changes in depth which could be treacherous.
A report will be prepared for the coroner.